Posts tagged systems

Do you like the current unlocking system for traits in Guild Wars 2? If you don't, you're in good company; very few people actually like it. The good news, at least, is that it doesn't appear that it's going to be a problem in the near future. Game director Colin Johanson spoke out recently on the ...

Any game with a strong online component is only as strong as its servers. You could make the best game in history, but if no one can log in and play it, it's not going to be worth much. The latest update on Shroud of the Avatar's development notes that one of the big issues plaguing the game's 10th...

It's been three months since PlanetSide 2 started updating once every week, if you don't count one update that was pushed back simply because it wasn't quite ready. As creative director Matt Higby put it to me at this year's PAX East, the schedule comes second to making sure that every update is th...

In my experience, game designers are prone to creating systems in RPGs and MMOs that are, well, antagonistic to the extreme. Maybe they made sense to the dev who had it all mapped out in his or her head, but to the average player, it's only a little more understandable than reading War and Peace in...

One of those trends that comes out of reading a lot about World of Warcraft is you start to see patterns in the responses. One trend I (and others, to be fair) have noticed coming out of BlizzCon, and then from discussions with people that I think needs to be understood and explored by players is t...

The Romulan faction in Star Trek Online's upcoming expansion does not play like mirrors of the Federation or the Klingons. The race's ships are less diverse in some ways, but its cloaking devices that allow for stealth even in combat make it clear that this is a race about subtle manipulation and...

The large-scale revamp to Darkfall is on the horizon, but players looking forward to Darkfall Unholy Wars have gotten information in drips and drabs regarding how the game will play after the revamp. Luckily for those players, an official development blog has recently been posted detailing the ne...

Criminals in EVE Online aren't just a cowardly and superstitious lot; they're a cowardly and superstitious lot with spaceships and powerful weapons. That makes the Crimewatch system even more vital to the game, as it ensures that the game imposes certain penalties for doing awful things to other ...

Neverwinter has some pretty big shoes to fill. More accurately, it has some pretty elaborate shoe-making tools that it needs to allow players to fill. After all, it's part of a franchise that's legendary for its player-created content. The Foundry system is aimed at giving players all of the user...

Star Trek Online has had issues with PvP since launch, and with the departure of the developer earmarked for improving PvP, many players had probably given up hope. However, the most recent edition of Ask Cryptic reassures players that PvP development has not stopped. The team behind the game is ...

One of the rules of MMO design is that the game is never really done. Designers can still make extensive tweaks and changes to abilities even well after launch. DC Universe Online's revamps of the Mental and Gadgets sets are a case in point. According to system designer Jesse Scott in a recent up...

When a game goes free-to-play, the development team has to change up its priorities. Star Trek Online changed up the leveling path when the business model was changed, giving players new and old an easier path to higher levels. But now that players are at the endgame, what comes next? The newest ...

We've previously talked about the fun results of interaction between Guild Wars 2's relatively simple elements. Emergent complexity is a driving force behind a lot of the depth in Guild Wars 2, as we examined in both the skill and dynamic event systems. This layered complexity also works to benef...

Companions are one of the main features of Star Wars: The Old Republic, but they're also sometimes very limiting. Depending on your class and spec, you can find yourself with only one or two companions with useful abilities. But that's partly by design; according to the latest community Q&A, ...

Maybe TERA is your first MMO, maybe you want to learn about what TERA offers its guilds, or maybe you just want to see guilds defined as something other than small-scale drama generators for once. There are a lot of reasons you might want to look at TERA's new guide to guilds in the game, but wha...

If you're playing EVE Online, you are going to lose a ship sooner or later. It's as inevitable as the tides. Sometimes you'll be outnumbered and outgunned, and while that can be frustrating, there's no real shame in it. But when you're having your ship locked in place by an attacker you can't see...

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.
I was in high school when I discovered a love for simplified ta...

Last week, I covered the raw basics of Enhancements in City of Heroes. This was a good place to start, but it also glossed over everything but the basics. It's telling that glossing over everything but the basics still involves stuff that's as bogglingly complicated as diversification, but then, ...

Every MMO has to face an issue of complexity creep, and EVE Online is no exception. The current trees for ship progression and skill advancement are the result of numerous patches, additions, and alterations to a core system that's left an enormous mess behind. As a result, the whole system is in...